LINKS WITH OTHER EDUCATION POLICY INITIATIVES

Every Child Matters

This project is very much in tune with the overarching policy objectives of the Government's Every Child Matters agenda (www.everychildmatters.gov.uk), and the principles of inclusion and collaboration underpinning this policy. There are also strong links with the emphasis on personalised learning, and on ways of exploring how this might manifest itself in the day-to-day work of schools and in classrooms.

Building Schools for the Future

The most obvious and direct link with current education policy priorities is with the Government's Building Schools for the Future programme (www.bsf.gov.uk). Anumber of schools in the Human Scale Schools project are also involved with this intiative.

Behaviour and Attendance Programme

The Human Scale Schools project also links with the Government's ongoing Behaviour and Attendance programme (www.dfes.gov.uk/behaviourandattendance). The programme was set up in 2002 in response to the Prime Minister's increasing concern about rising levels of street crime. To date it has cost over £802m. In spite of the excellent work being undertaken by the DfES, much remains to be done. There is evidence to suggest that student behaviour and attitudes are affected by school size. We firmly believe that Human Scale Schools, built on positive, effective relationships where children and young people are genuinely valued and respected, and where learning is taken seriously, have a vital role to play in addressing students' attitudes towards school and hence their behaviour and regular attendance.

The Education and Inspections Act 2006

The Education and Inspections Act (www.publications.parliament.uk) has implications for the freedoms available to schools to adopt innovative approaches to the curriculum, learning and teaching. It is possible that the new Trust schools that can be created under this legislation may offer opportunities for individual schools, or federations of Trust schools, to adopt human scale principles and practices.

Absolute Return for Kids (ARK)

There is already evidence that the Academies being sponsored by the charity Absolute Return for Kids (ARK) are proposing to adopt a 'schools within a school' approach. One such Academy, Burlington Danes in West London, is one of the Human Scale Schools project schools.  www.arkonline.org/projects/uk_education1/ark_school.html

QCA's Secondary Curriculum

QCA's new secondary curriculum, launched in July 2007, provides for greater curriculum flexibility and encourages schools to look afresh at curriculum organisation, structure and content. www.qca.org.uk  A number of schools involved withthe Human Scale Schools project are devloping a thematic curriculum, integrating subjects and promoting enquiry-based learning. This is particularly the case at Key Stage 3. 

Student Voice

There are obvious links with a variety of policy initiatives (promoting student-led school councils, for example, and the current focus on assessment for learning) to ensure that 'Student Voice', and what children and young people have to say about the way schools are run and about their learning, is taken seriously and acted upon. Several of the project schools are seeking to create opportunities for students to have a greater say in the life and work of their school.

Teachers' views

Early responses to this initiative suggest that the project has considerable popular appeal. Teachers in all schools, but particularly those working in large secondary schools, are keen to ensure that children and young people feel a sense of belonging, that they are valued and respected as human beings, and that their views are taken seriously. At all costs, teachers do not want young people to feel that they are merely cogs in a vast machine. It is our experience that many teachers are keenly interested in finding practical, day-to-day ways in which they can adopt human scale principles in practice. Sometimes, this may start in a small way, with an individual teacher changing her or his approach to learning and teaching within the classroom. But more often, success is achieved through a whole-school approach, with commitment and support from the school's headteacher and rest of the senior management team. It is this latter approach that is being championed by the Human Scale Schools project.

Mentor Schools